Be it pressure groups or be it anybody, we should be guided by
prescribed norms of the law: Tynsong on NEIGRIHMS ruckus
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 11: The state government has warned pressure groups not to take the law into their own hands.
“Be it pressure groups or be it anybody, we should be guided by prescribed norms of the law. We cannot take the law in our hands,” Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Home (Police), Prestone Tynsong said on Friday.
His statement comes following last week’s incident in NEIGRIHMS where the HYC had attempted to forcibly shut down the Director’s Administrative Block over the issue of recruitment of nurses.
Earlier, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had asserted that action will be initiated in connection with the disruption of operations at NEIGRIHMS.
He said the police have taken note of the incident and a case has been registered. The police are taking steps as per law and action will be initiated based on evidence, he said.
“From any point of view, this is unacceptable,” Sangma said referring to the locking of NEIGRIHMS director’s office by the Hynniewtrep Youth Council in protest against non-fulfilment of its demands.
He said even during wars, armed forces have an unwritten code of not touching hospitals.
“The operations of hospital were kind of interfered with. Whatever the reasons may be, at the end of the day, if you do something like that, it is the people and the patients who suffer,” he said.
Stating that this is not the way to address issues, he said the state government, the central government and the institute never closed their doors for any discussion on any issues.
“We proved it and showed it in the past and we will continue to engage in the future. There is no instance where the functioning of a hospital was disturbed,” Sangma said.
“If there are concerns, then there are ways to discuss and address them but stopping the operations of a hospital is not one of them,” he added.
It may be added here that the HYC had held a protest at NEIGRIHMS on April 4 with the intention of locking the Director’s office as he failed to give a satisfactory reply on the steps taken to address their four-point demands within seven days. The deadline had expired on April 3.
Led by Synrem, the members of HYC attempted to forcibly enter the Director’s office leading to a confrontation with the security personnel. They asked Prof Mehta to come out of his office and hold discussions with them outside.
As he came out, they shut the Director’s Administrative Block. Synrem told the Director they would not leave the campus until they receive a written response on their demands.
The HYC accused the NEIGRIHMS Director of violating the ST reservation policies, claiming that only two out of 107 vacancies for Nursing Officer positions were reserved for ST candidates, instead of the required 7.5% reservation (eight seats).
Following the incident a suo motu FIR was registered at Rynjah police station against five top leaders of the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC). Five HYC leaders against whom the FIR was registered—Roy Kupar Synrem (president), Donboklang Kharlyngdoh (vice president), Rhembor G Saibon (general secretary), Issac W Basaiawmoit (secretary), and Enlang Sawian (education secretary)—were picked up by the police when they were exiting the NEIGRIHMS premises following their failed meeting with Director, Nalin Mehta.
After examining them and recording their statements, all five leaders were released by the police.